PETISOVCI, Slovenia — Thousands of migrants surged into tiny Slovenia on Saturday as they desperately searched for a new passageway to Western Europe. The closure of Hungary’s border with Croatia early Saturday caused the redirection of thousands of people — including women and small children soaked in cold rain — further west toward Croatia’s border with Slovenia. Croatian police say more than 5,000 migrants have entered the country since the border closure. Several buses packed with migrants arrived in the Slovenian border town of Petisovci on Saturday. A train carrying 1,800 people arrived at the border in the afternoon. Police said that after processing, most are transferred toward the Austrian border. The small European Union-member state, however, has limited capacity to process large numbers heading to wealthier E.U. countries such as Germany, Austria and Sweden. This could leave thousands stranded in Croatia and further east and south, in Serbia and Macedonia — the countries on the so-called Balkan migrant corridor. The U.N. refugee agency said Slovenia has the capacity to accept some 7,000 migrants a day. Slovenian officials said, however, that they can permit only as many as 2,500 people a day and will allow new groups to enter only after previous groups leave the country.
